Happy November! Did October just fly by? Why is it spring arrives so slowly and fall careens in, teeters for a moment on the precipice, and then plunges right into winter? Winter hasn’t arrived just yet but my local weather forecaster reminded me the other day that we average 9 inches (23 cm) of snow in November. We did have a little snow a week and a half ago but it melted as soon as it hit the ground so I just pretended it was really thick rain.
Autumn’s arrival in early October and the end of gardening did help my reading speed along. Once the snow becomes something more than thick rain, imagine all the reading I will be doing! My October reading plan was a great success. I read everything I planned to and even read Hecuba, my reserve book in case I finished all the others. This also allowed me to get back to my NYRB subscription books and read the July book, In Love by Alfred Hayes, which I just finished this afternoon. Woot! Look at me go!
Now, planning for November, here is what’s in store:
- The Selected Poems of Edward Thomas. Last month the plan was to read ten poems a week and finish up the book the first week of December. I am right on track. I have also read some really lovely poems. I am looking forward to sharing this book in more detail with you.
- My MOOCs are still going. I am in deep right now with T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Including this week there are seven more weeks to go, I think. So that will continue for November. Also continuing for the month is my historical fiction class. I am in the middle of Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks and at the beginning of Fever by Mary Beth Keane. Both of these books will be finished this month.
- Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather is also in the cards this month. I will be reading it along with Danielle. I suspect I will be starting in on it sometime next week.
- I also plan on reading The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono. The book is a gift from my friend Cath. It is the story of Elzeard Bouffier who moves to southeastern France with his sheep and dog and plants one hundred acorns a day. I am really looking forward to reading this one.
- Since I get a four-day holiday at the end of November for Thanksgiving and won’t be traveling over the river and through the woods to anyone’s house nor will anyone be traveling to mine, I will have some extra time to indulge in reading and have high hopes of being able to partake of MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. I am very much looking forward to this and finding out how the story begun in Oryx and Crake ends.
- And, should I have another blockbuster reading month, I will plunge into The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart. This is my August NYRB subscription book. It is, according to the back of the book, “an intoxicating tale of love and wonder, mothers and daughters, spiritual values and the grim legacy of slavery on the French Antillean Island of Guadeluope.” Sounds good, doesn’t it?
So there is the November plan. With that my mind has skipped over December entirely and has already begun thinking about next year. I know! But I can’t help myself!
“Thick Rain”. You crack me up Stefanie!
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Shh, Helen, don’t ruin my fine state of denial! 😉
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Hi Stefanie,
After reading your post on the end of Fall and beginning of Winter, I read the daily email I get from the American Academy of Poets. This is the poem for today, by William Cullen Bryant. I thought the sentiment sounded like your post!
Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,
Ere, o’er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,
Or snows are sifted o’er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.
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Oh Kathleen, that is a great poem! Thank you for sharing t with me. I have to sign up for that daily poetry email!
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This is a great month of reading ahead of you. I read four books in October and for me, that’s a real lot. And I know — how did November sneak in so fast? Honestly, I am NOT looking forward to an Ottawa winter!
I will really be looking forward to your review of MaddAddam — amazingly I have not bought this book yet even though I am quite a fan of the other two in the series.
Happy reading to you!
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I hope you enjoy your November reading. I think there is a fine Edward Thomas poem called November that catches the month superbly – must look it up. Look forward to your Thomas post. I am just about to start Asne Seierstad’s (she of Bookseller Of Kabul fame) With Their Backs To the World which is her book about Serbia.
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Aargh! Met Office 5 day forecast promises some lioght snow for early tomorrow- but it turns to rain!
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Ian, I think I have read that Thomas poem last week and liked it very much. Hope you enjoy the Seierstad book. As for the snow, sorry to hear you have some in your forecast. We are expecting an inch at least tomorrow but it things go just so we might get as much as 6 inches. Ugh. My snow shovel is at the ready.
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Cipriano, crazy that it’s November already! I walked by a store on my way to work this morning that is already playing Christmas music! I so love Atwood and I have heard good things about the book so I am really looking forward to it. And whenever our respective winters arrive and no matter how long and cold they are, at least we have the comfort of our books 🙂
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I really want to add the new Atwood to my list as well, but not having yet read ‘The year of the Flood’ I suppose I should do something about that first.
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Alex, I have been wanting to read it since it came out in September and was debating between it and Bring up the Bodies but decided a break from historical fiction would be nice 🙂 Reading Year of the Flood is definitely a must before MaddAddam.
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Yay for Willa Cather. I am ready to start any time you are–will bring it with me to work tomorrow! 🙂 I hope I get on better with it (and I suspect I will) better than my last novella, which was Casanova’s The Duel. I just sort of felt very meh about it. Timing? Mood? Who knows, but the Cather appeals to me much more. I have tried to get into the Haye book several times–I suspect I am not giving myself a good chunk of time to orient myself in the story. How did you get on with it–or I shall watch for your post about it. I am falling hopelessly behind in my subscription books–and the November one came last week…. Somehow that long four day weekend at the end of the month doesn’t seem like quite enough time to get caught up. Good for you for sticking with your plans so valiantly–maybe some of it will rub off on me….last month was an abysmal reading month and I finished almost nothing….:(
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Danielle, I’ll be reading Cather on my Kindle as soon as I am done with Year of Wonders and that is moving along faster than I expected and I might be done in a few days. But then I am bad at figuring out when I will be done with a book so I am sticking to thinking I will start Cather on Monday next week. The Hayes book took me about 25-30 pages to really get into but then it sped along pretty quickly after that. I stuck to the plan for October, we’ll see how November goes. I am always good at sticking to plan at the start and then it all falls apart. Hopefully you will have a spectacular reading month in November!
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I love your reading plans! I feel like October went by so very quickly indeed…I think I only read about five books, what I usually do in a week, sigh. I think a plan might help 🙂
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Melwyk, thanks! I don’t know if October ended up being such a good month because of the plan I made or not. But it felt good to prioritize things and I still managed to get in some unplanned reading too. Fingers crossed this month goes as well! Reading five books in a month is good for me, five in a week is a miracle!
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We’ve been snowed in last week and even though we have a few days’ break of sunshine, we’re heading into more snow later this weekend. I’m already wearing winter coats and scarf can you believe it! Guess November, or winter, for that matter, is a good time for reading… can’t go out much anyway. Look forward to your book reviews!
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Arti, I had to break down and wear my winter coat yesterday and now I will have to look at until April. I haven’t had to put on the snow boots yet though. You have my winter weather sympathies though because I am all too familiar with how you are feeling! Winter is an excellent time for reading I think.
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That sounds great! I’m curious about the Willa Cather; that’s one I’m not familiar with, and since I’d like to read more of her, I hope it’s good.
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Rebecca, I think Alexander’s Bridge is her first book. I started reading it yesterday and so far I am loving it.
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The Bridge of Beyond sounds great; that’s the one from your stack that I would add to the top of mine (because I’ve already read the Atwood’s, otherwise they’d be at the top for me). I’m stubborn like you, about the clinging to autumn-garb, though I actually love the snow: it’s the principal of it somehow, all the same. It was damn cold today though. Little sparks of really, um, scant and teeny raindrops, were spotted in the wild. Good luck with your November reading plan!
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Ooh I thought no one read Simone Schwartz-Bart anymore – I am so pleased this is not the case! Will be very interested to know what you think of that one. And hey, fancy getting all your plans completed to your satisfaction in October, that’s amazing! I hope November shapes up to be an excellent reading month too.
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